The week has been full of stories in which the Rudd government has been guilty of delay … sometimes through prudent policy caution, sometimes through obfuscation. Sometimes this “masterful inactivity” is annoying, sometimes it is reasonably cautious, sometimes it is politically expedient. Sometimes it is fatal.

As Tim Richards reports in today’s Crikey edition, it is now 29 days since the Rudd Government received the National Clinical Taskforce on Organ and Tissue Donation Final Report: Think Nationally, Act Locally. Since then, by the figures, 11 people waiting on donor organs will have died. Tim is not one of them, but as he waits for a new heart and lungs, he knows it’s only a matter of time. Tim argues the need for an opt-out system in which organs might be considered donated unless their owner specifies otherwise. 

Over to you Nicola Roxon, people are dying to hear what you think.